Mercury-Silver Amalgam Fillings
WARNING: Your Dentist May Be Hazardous to Your Health!
Smoking Teeth = Posion Gas
The Truth About Mercury-Silver Amalgam Fillings
written December 1997
For many people, going to the dentist can be an absolutely dreadful experience, but one that they endure to avoid painful experiences later. Most of us have had a filling placed in our mouths to repair tooth decay. According to the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) "more than 100 million amalgam fillings are placed in the United States" every year ("A Statement of Confidence in Amalgam" 396). The unfortunate fact is that these amalgam type fillings are hazardous to everyone's health. This is because they contain mercury. It is a toxic substance that "leaks" out of amalgam fillings in the mouth and causes severe health problems for many patients.
An amalgam filling contains approximately 35% silver, 15% tin with a trace of zinc and 50% mercury (Begley 80). That means that one-half of the filling contains this toxic element. Most high school students know that mercury is a dangerous material. Even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified the leftover amalgam scrap as a "hazardous substance" and 58 dentists in Willington, Connecticut who did not dispose of it properly were fined $1,200 a piece in 1989 ("The EPA Controversy" 1). Therefore, the question that patients should ask is, "If amalgam fillings are considered toxic in the ground by the EPA, then how can they be safe in the mouth?" According to Dr. Terry J. Lee D.D.S. "Approximately 85% of the population have silver fillings in their mouths" (Interview). In December of 1989 the FASEB Journal (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) stated in an experiment report that over a 100,000 kilograms (100 tons) of mercury are placed in patients mouths every year in North America (Haun et al. 2645).
Mercury comes out of the filling while it is in the patient's mouth. The above mentioned experiment was conducted on adult sheep that had been given amalgam fillings with radioactive mercury (203Hg). The FASEB Journal reported that after 29 days the sheep were sacrificed and measurements of the mercury were taken in different tissues of the body. Their data concluded that mercury does, in fact, come out of the fillings as vapor (or gas) and as a liquid. It is colorless, odorless, and tasteless and was found in the brain, lungs, liver, gastrointestinal track, and jawbone of the sheep. They also concluded that additional research could prove beneficial toward public health in general and that humans with amalgams are being poisoned every time they chew or brush (Haun et al. 2646). Dr. Hal A. Huggins also conducted a vapor test experiment to determine if mercury vapor does come off the teeth. Using a device that detects mercury vapor in milligrams per cubic meter (mg/M3), Dr. Huggins found that "some patients exhibited vapor emissions up to 600 percent greater than OSHA's (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) maximum permissible dose for a forty hour work week". Dr. Huggins also pointed out that this maximum dose does not account for "patients who wear their fillings seven days per week" (199).
Finally, several scientific experiments and clinical situations show that the mercury from amalgams cause vast depreciations in patient health. Dr. Lee has related a story concerning a middle aged housewife named Sharon who had severe psychological problems. Her husband told Dr. Lee that if amalgam removal couldn't improve her condition, she would have to be institutionalized for the rest of her life. No one had been able to help her even though she had been examined and treated by several specialists in the medical field. Dr. Lee informed them that there was no guarantee that removing her amalgam fillings would illicit any change. Nevertheless, they chose to have them replaced with a quartz-acrylic type material called composite. Six months later, after her amalgam fillings had been removed, she was considered 95 percent better. Later, she said to Dr. Lee, "Do you know what I just realized? You saved my life!" (Lee, Interview).
Sharon's condition is not isolated. Dr. Lee has treated several others who have had harmful reactions that seem to be linked to mercury. These reactions include epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, Alzheimer's disease, depression, and many others. All of these patients seem to have improved in some way or another (even to recovery in some cases) because of amalgam filling replacement.
Another study, this time from the American Journal of Physiology, also showed that the mercury from amalgams spread to fetal tissues of pregnant sheep. It concluded that the use of amalgams in pregnant women and children ought to be reconsidered (Vimy, Takahashi, and Lorscheider, R939). In the book, It's All in Your Head, Dr. Huggins told of a young patient who was experiencing pains in her chest and in her stomach. She went to several specialist with each of them insisting "You're OK." Finally it came down to institutionalizing her. Her mother wouldn't allow it. Meanwhile, her daughter who had been a fantastic high school student was wanting "to claw her heart out of her chest." They eventually came across Dr. Huggins and the possibility that her problems were caused by amalgams. Dr. Huggins wasn't sure that replacement of the fillings with plastic would help her, but two days after the fillings were removed the chest pains stopped. Two days after that she was able to rejoin her friends in high school after months of being away. Not all people react to amalgams the way these examples did. However, Dr. Huggins estimated that over 20% of the population is affected by mercury toxicity enough to hinder their lives (1). Thus, amalgams are a danger to public health.
Truth can't stay suppressed forever. The American Dental Association's (ADA) failure to take action against amalgams and their continuance in endorsing them is costing the health of too many people to be ignored. The people's freedom to choose toxic free dentistry must be reestablished. The claims that the ADA makes that there is no sufficient scientific evidence to disprove the safety of amalgams are completely false ("When Your Patients Ask About Mercury in Amalgam" 395). We must acknowledge the harmful effects that mercury poisoning from amalgams can have on the human body and convince the ADA to stop their endorsement of the material. Amalgams can ruin and have ruined many people's lives. It's time for the truth to be known, to be understood, and to be acted upon. It is important that people know and understand that silver fillings can be a "silent killer."
Bibliography of Sources
Begley, Sharon, and Patricia King. "Drilling for Danger?: A Debate Over the Safety of 'Silver' Fillings." Newsweek Oct. 15, 1990: pg. 80.Hahn, Leszek J., et al. "Dental "Silver" Tooth Fillings: A Source of Mercury Exposure Revealed By Whole Body Image Scan and Tissue Analysis". The FASEB Journal Vol. 3, No. 14., Dec. 1989: pgs. 2641 - 2645.
Huggins, Hal A., D.D.S.. It's All In Your Head. Life Sciences Press, 1989.
Lee, Dr. Terry J., D.D.S.. Personal Interview. Dec. 14, 1997.
"The EPA Controversy" Huggins Diagnostic Center Newsletter, Jan. 1989.
Vimy, M. J., Takahashi, Y., and F. L. Lorscheider. "Maternal-Fetal Distribution of Mercury (203 Hg) Released from Dental Amalgam Fillings". American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology Volume 27, No. 4., Apr. 1990: pgs. R939 - R945.
"When Your Patients Ask About Mercury in Amalgam". Journal of the American Dental Association Vol. 120., Apr. 1990: 395 - 396.
"A Statement of Confidence in Amalgam". Journal of the American Dental Association Vol. 120., Apr. 1990: 396.
